Startups Push for Early Payouts as the IPO Wait Drags On

Employees at high-profile private startups are increasingly stuck holding equity they cannot easily convert into cash. With the gap between funding rounds and public listings widening, two major players in the venture ecosystem have launched a joint initiative to bridge that financial void. NewView and Carta have teamed up to simplify the process of secondary share sales, allowing staff at late-stage companies to sell a portion of their stock before a traditional exit event occurs.

The core of this effort relies on the tender offer mechanism. In these transactions, employees and some early investors can sell shares at a fixed price to an approved buyer. As the timeline to an initial public offering or acquisition stretches, more companies are adopting this method to provide liquidity. The collaboration combines NewView’s experience in structuring secondary deals with Carta’s equity management platform. Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner of NewView, stated that the goal is to help startups launch and run these liquidity programs more efficiently. He described the approach as a win-win-win for employees, companies, and investors, hoping it will make CEOs more comfortable with the concept.

Recent data from a study by NewView Capital and Carta indicates that this practice is gaining traction. Tender offers among Series C and later-stage startups are projected to have grown threefold over the past three years. Viswanathan noted that these deals are no longer exclusive to the most valuable private firms, such as OpenAI, Databricks, or Anduril. He cited Hightouch, a marketing customization startup, as a prime example. Last year, NewView led a tender for Hightouch at a $1.3 billion valuation when the company was seven years old.

Despite this growth, tender offers remain rare in the broader market. The same research found that only 44 such offers were executed in the first half of 2026. This figure represents a small share of eligible startups. Viswanathan aims to expand that number, arguing that tenders serve as strong retention tools and morale boosters. He suggested that the standard recruiting pitch has lost some of its previous force. A decade ago, reaching unicorn status was sufficient to attract talent, but the proliferation of billion-dollar companies has diluted that label’s impact. He believes a tender provides an opportunity to tell candidates they will also get liquidity during their tenure.

Several high-profile companies have recently utilized this strategy. Decagon, an AI customer support startup, recently held a tender offer. Wayve, a developer of self-driving technology, has also participated. ElevenLabs, an AI voice generator, carried out two such offerings in under a year. These examples illustrate that the trend is spreading beyond just the most established private giants.

Viswanathan warned that the shift toward longer private periods is unlikely to reverse. He stated that companies are now staying private for 12 to 15 years, a trend that does not appear to be changing. To prevent a drain of talent from high-quality venture-backed companies to their public counterparts, he argued that there is a critical need to ensure liquidity for employees. The NewView and Carta partnership is designed to address this structural gap in the current startup lifecycle.